CHAMPIONS SECURE

ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT TO HELP

PMP ASPIRANTS IN EXAM PREPARATION

Project Leaders:
PMI India Senior Champions Sumanth Shampur, PMP, and Sowmya Narayan Varadhan, PMP

Project Team (Hewlett Packard):

Sudharsana Srinivasan, PMP, Vivekanandhan Karthikeyan, PMP, Arunkumar Janarthanan, PMP,
Venkatraman Ramachandran, PMP, and Rangarajan Balasubramanian, PMP
CHAMPIONS SECURE
ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT TO HELP
PMP ASPIRANTS IN EXAM PREPARATION

Background
The relevance of project management is growing in both
traditionally projectized and non-projectized environments
as organizations transform themselves into digital
businesses. To make this transition painless, they need
highly skilled professionals who can deliver superior project
performance. Hence, the demand is growing for project
managers with the Project Management Professional
(PMP)® certification, which is an endorsement of a project
manager's project execution skills.

Data from PMI’s Earning Power:

Project Management Salary Survey,
10th Edition, shows how much organizations
value the PMP® certification. A PMP® certified
project manager in India earns more than
35 percent higher in median salary than
someone without the certification.

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Findings from PMI's Pulse of the Profession, 2018 survey:

68% 72%

of organizations in India have training

have processes to develop programs on project
project management management tools
competency in-house and techniques

However, the path toward PMP® certification can still be daunting.

PMP® aspirants struggle due to the lack of a roadmap to guide them
through this journey.

Challenges
Preparing for the PMP® examination is like trying
one’s hand at making coffee, working on getting
the right mix of the decoction, milk, and sugar.
Project managers often go through a few ordeals
before finding the best approach toward getting
PMP® certified.

PMI India Champions at Hewlett Packard identified

the lack of a well-defined, repeatable process in the
organization that simplifies the approach toward
PMP® certification as a significant pain point for
aspirants. The company has a large number of
project managers across its offices in India.

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The other challenge was the prevalence of misconceptions
about the value and applicability of the PMP® certification,
even as agile project management gains ground. The
Champions felt the need to create awareness about the
relevance of PMP® in the agile world.

For example, project managers need to understand that in an

agile project scenario, teams need to apply PMP®
recommended tools and techniques like facilitated workshops
and group creativity, along with agile principles, for
requirements gathering. Hence, they need to know both
traditional and agile methods in an agile project environment.

There is also an erroneous belief that any waterfall-based

approach can be converted into an agile format. However, in
reality, the smaller tasks in a large project can follow agile
methods but the larger project framework can continue to be
under waterfall.

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The approach
The PMI India Senior Champions, who had decided to chart a
way out of the common challenges that PMP® aspirants face,
knew that it would not be an easy job. Experience across
organizations has shown that project management advocacy
often encounters roadblocks such as unfriendly stakeholders,
curbs in finance, and difficulty in sustaining and scaling up an
initiative.

Hence, they adopted the following principles in this journey:

a. Experiential: include multi-dimensional experiences to build a framework

b. Synergize: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go
together
c. Analogy: One good analogy is worth three hours of discussion
d. Passion: Fulfilling vision comes from passion
e. Tapping multiple sources
f. Fun: make learning enjoyable

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1
The First Milestone
Buy-in from Senior Management
and Learning and Development (L&D)

At the start of the journey, the Champions picked some common myths that
existed among senior managers such as, “Project managers can understand
and study PMI’s A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK
Guide)® on their own,” “If you are a project manager, you ought to know PMBOK
Guide,” or “The PMBOK Guide is self-explanatory; we don’t need to teach it to
project managers.”

As a first step, the Champions team set up a meeting with the senior
management to explain why an organization-level framework to facilitate
certification is required. The following were some of the rationale put forth:

a. During the PMP® certification exam, project managers are tested on

their understanding of the PMBOK Guide, and how to apply it to the
real-world. Hence, it is a useful determinant of how well a project
manager has comprehended it.

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b. The shared knowledge of project managers who have undergone
certification is a great way to add to the depth of understanding of
aspirants.

c. PMP® certification can be a long and tiresome journey if undertaken alone.

But along with fellow travelers and mentors, it can be more fruitful and
enjoyable.

d. A side outcome of this exercise would be the creation of a knowledge pool

as project managers and aspirants share their experiences and insights.

The team knew that a top-down approach would be critical for the success of
this initiative. Hence, once the senior management and L&D provided the
endorsement, the execution became easier.

Senior
management Building
and L&D buy-in framework

Post workshop Identify

plan toward days to
certification deliver
workshop

Delivering
the Identify
workshop trainers

Logistics Create
and presentation
scheduling deck

Figure 1: The multi-pronged approach toward building an organizational framework

to facilitate PMP certification

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2
Second Milestone
Building a Framework for
the PMP Workshop

As a next step, the team worked on the best possible days to hold training
workshops. After multiple rounds of discussions, the Champions decided to
organize the workshops on weekdays spread over two weeks. This was done
to ensure that the participants had sufficient time to absorb the learning,
without letting it interfere with their work responsibilities. The days were
chosen carefully – Wednesdays and Thursdays – so as to minimize
absenteeism due to work commitments during the start of the week or avoid
slacking toward the weekend.

Identifying like-minded trainers was the other task on the agenda. The
Champions looked for volunteers who displayed a sense of passion for
project management. Only then would they be able to convey the concepts
of each Knowledge Area in a way that each participant understands it.

The Champions tapped their network within the organization to find the right
trainers. Since it is not possible to find project managers who excel in every
Knowledge Area, the search took time.

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 Following the selection of the training
team, each member was assigned a
Knowledge Area and tasked with
developing training material on it. To
make the presentations effective, the
following were some measures taken:

Looking
for ways
to simplify Identifying
the and
concepts mitigating
to be risks during
Gathering
conveyed. the program,
information from Use analogies
multiple sources for such as the
Use of to explain
each Knowledge need for a
crosswords, tests concepts. For
Area, for example, response
and quizzes to example, the
they referred to the plan if a
make the learning use of bowling
PMBOK Guide to trainer is
easy to absorb. techniques in a
ensure the tone, suddenly
For example, snap cricket game
phrases, and unavailable
tests to work out to explain
jargons are for a session.
problems related precision.
consistent with the
to Project
PMP exam. Some
Schedule, Cost
resources were Rita
and Procurement
Mulcahy’s work that
Management, or
provides a deeper
application-orient
explanation of each
ed quizzes for
concept with
Project Scope
effective examples
Management.
and Andy Crowe’s
Aspirants got
explanation of
crosswords and
concepts in a lighter
quizzes to solve
vein.
after class.

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3
Third Milestone
Logistics, Scheduling

The Champions worked with the L&D department and various business
units to select the right set of participants for the workshop. Each
workshop had an intake limit of 20 so as to personalize the experience
and make the discussions fruitful.

The venue for the workshop was a spacious room, with abundant
lighting to keep the mood good. They also ensured that the training
rooms had lengthy writing boards so that trainers could use them to
draw network diagrams to explain concepts.

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4
Fourth Milestone
Delivering the Workshop

The workshops started with an elevated pitch to build anticipation in

participants – for example, project management in the VUCA world (or
in other words, a world of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and
Ambiguity).

To sustain interest, the team organized a number of activities such as

crosswords or quizzes. They also made the sessions interactive and
encouraged participants to work out problems on the drawing board.
Finally, to ensure the learning was well-absorbed, the participants
received homework based on the day’s learning and took part in Q&A
sessions before the start of the next day’s session.

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5
Fifth Milestone
Creating a Study Path

The last session focused on the benefits of taking PMI membership

and the study plan toward the PMP certification exam. The study
plan included the books to be used for reference, forming study
groups, study methods to make group learning effective, the best
way to approach the four-hour mock exams, the time to set aside
for preparation, and the application process. The workshop
participants received assistance in filling the application and
support in case of an audit.

 Read glossary

 By this date 2  Cheat sheet thrice

readings of  ITTO once
PMBOK Guide and
 Read quick
9 mock exams to
 2 Knowledge reference material
be completed
 Andy Crowe  Last mock exam
Areas in PMBOK
 2 Knowledge -2
(light read) before the finals -6 Areas in PMBOK

-10 -8 -4

D-Day

-9 -3 -1
 Andy Crowe -5  Write ITTO twice  Read quick reference
-7  2 Knowledge material
 2 Knowledge Areas
 2 Knowledge Areas in in PMBOK  Read glossary
Areas in PMBOK
 Cheat sheet
PMBOK
 Slight reading of PMBOK
 A good rest

Figure 2: A detailed roadmap leading up to the PMP certification exam day

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The outcome
There are currently four trainers each in Bengaluru and Chennai delivering
PMP certification training workshops. Collectively, they have organized
around 15 workshops between June 2015 and August 2017 across these
two cities. The program has received appreciation from participants, as is
evident from their feedback.

Sowmya and Sumanth

The course was very
well organized the
instructor’s training
method is excellent.
The cours served its
objectives
have been very helpful
and have streamlined the
Trainers were excellent good
PMP program in a simpler
motivation to write PMP
way. Really appreciated
all their efforts. Thank
you once gain.

Below are some of the key outcomes of this program:

This tried and tested PMP certification framework can be implemented by

other organizations. It will highly simplify the exam preparation process and
roadmap for PMP certification for its project managers, and thereby
improve the project management competency level of its teams.

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